1844
:For the game, see: ''1844.'' Year 1844 (MDCCCXLIV) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1844 January - March * January 15 - The University of Notre Dame receives its charter from Indiana. * February 20 - Famous solo sailor Joshua Slocum is born in Mount Hanley. : [[Wikipedia:USS Princeton (1843)|USS Princeton]] deaths.]] * February 27 - The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti. * February 28 - A gun on the [[Wikipedia:USS Princeton (1843)|USS Princeton]] explodes while the boat is on a Potomac River cruise, killing two United States Cabinet members and several others. * February 28 - The Grand National at Aintree is won by the 5/1 co favourite Discount. * March 8 - King Oscar I ascends to the throne of Sweden-Norway. * March 12 - The Columbus and Xenia Railroad, the first railroad that is planned to be built in Ohio, is chartered. April - June * April - The Fleet Prison for debtors in London is abolished. - First telegram sent.]] * May 23 - Persian Prophet The Báb announces His revelation to Mullah Hussein, just after sunset, founding the Bábí Faith in Shiraz, Persia. He announces to the world of the coming of "He whom God shall make manifest." He is considered the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith. * May 24 - The first electrical telegram is sent by Samuel F. B. Morse from the U.S. Capitol in Washington to the B&O Railroad "outer depot" in Baltimore, saying "What hath God wrought". * June 6 - George Williams founds the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in London. * June 15 - Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber. * June 22 - Influential North American fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon is founded at Yale University. * June 27 - Joseph Smith is martyred with his brother Hyrum in Carthage Jail, Carthage. July - September * July 3 - The United States signs The Sino-American Treaty of Wanghia with the Chinese Government (the first diplomatic agreement between China and the United States in history). : Charles Goodyear.]] : Great Auk.]] * July 3 - The last pair of Great Auks are killed on the island of Eldey. * August 8 - During a meeting held in Nauvoo, the Quorum of the Twelve, headed by Brigham Young, is chosen as the leading body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. * August 28 - Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx meet in Paris. October - December * October 22 - Date predicted by the Millerites for the Second Coming of Jesus; leads to the Great Disappointment. * November 3 - Giuseppe Verdi's I due Foscari debuts at Teatro Argentina, Rome. * November 6 - The Dominican Republic drafts its first Constitution. * December 4 - James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay in the U.S. presidential election. * December 21 - The Rochdale Pioneers commence business at their cooperative in Rochdale, England. Undated * First ever international cricket match is played in New York City between Canada and the United States. * Swedish chemistry professor Gustaf Erik Pasch invents the safety match. * Alexandre Dumas meets Marie Duplessis. * Locksmith Alexander Fichet invents the first safe. * Carlos Antonio Lopez becomes dictator of Paraguay. * Abd al-Qadir is defeated at Isly in Morocco. The sultan of Morocco soon repudiates his ally. * The anonymously written Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation is published and paves the way for the acceptance of Darwin's book The Origin of Species. Births January - June * January 9 - Julián Gayarre, Spanish opera singer (d. 1890) * February 17 - Aaron Montgomery Ward, American department store founder (d. 1913) * February 20 **Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (d. 1906) **Joshua Slocum, Canadian seaman and adventurer (d. 1909) * February 21 - Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937) * March 10 - Pablo de Sarasate, Spanish violinist (d. 1908) * March 18 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (d. 1908) * March 25 - Adolf Engler, German botanist (d. 1930) * March 30 - Paul Verlaine, French poet (d. 1896) * April 16 - Anatole France, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1924) * May 17 - Julius Wellhausen, German biblical scholar (d. 1918) * May 21 - Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910) * May 22 - Mary Cassatt, American artist (d. 1926) * May 23 - `Abdu'l-Bahá, Persian religious leader (d. 1921) * June 3 - Garret A. Hobart, 24th Vice President of the United States (d. 1899) July - December * July 11 - King Peter I of Serbia (d. 1921) * July 22 - William Archibald Spooner, British scholar and Anglican priest (d. 1930) * July 28 - Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (d. 1889) * August 6 - Prince Alfred of the United Kingdom, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1900) * August 17 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (d. 1913) * August 22 - George Washington DeLong, American naval officer and explorer (d. 1881) * August 23 - Hamilton Disston, American land developer (d. 1896) * August 29 - Edward Carpenter, English Socialist poet (d. 1929) * August 30 - Emily Ruete, princess of Zanzibar (d. 1924) * September 20 - William H. Illingworth, American photographer (d. 1893) * October 15 - Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (d. 1900) * October 22 **Louis Riel, Canadian leader (d. 1885) **Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (d. 1923) * October 23 - Robert Bridges, English poet (d. 1930) * October 27 - Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1916) * November 2 - Mehmed V, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1918) * November 10 - Henry Eyster Jacobs, American Lutheran theologian (d. 1932) * November 23 - Karl Benz, German automotive pioneer (d. 1929) * December 1 - Alexandra of Denmark, queen of Edward VII of England (d. 1925) * December 8 - Émile Reynaud, French science teacher and animation pioneer (d. 1918) *''probable'' - Abdor Rahman Khan, Emir of Kabul, Emir of Kandahar, Emir of Afghanistan (d. 1901) : See also 1844 births. Deaths January - June * January 25 - Jean-Baptiste Drouet, French marshal (b. 1765) * January 27 - Charles Nodier, French writer (b. 1780) *February 15 - Henry Addington, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1757) * February 27 - Nicholas Biddle, president of the Second Bank of the United States (b. 1786) * March 8 - King Charles XIV John of Sweden, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, French Napoleonic general (b. 1763) * May 18 - Richard McCarty, American politician (b. 1780) * June 13 - Thomas Charles Hope, Scottish chemist and discoverer of Strontium (b. 1766) *June 27 **Hyrum Smith, American religious leader (b. 1800) **Joseph Smith, American religious leader (b. 1805) July - December * July 11 - Evgeny Baratynsky, Russian poet and philosopher (b. 1800) * July 27 - John Dalton, English chemist and physicist (b. 1766) * July 28 - Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon I and King of Naples and Spain (b. 1768) * July 29 - Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer (b. 1791) : See also 1844 deaths.